"Toyota and many other motor manufacturers worldwide are recalling vehicles for potentially defective Takata airbag inflators. Globally, there are close to 100 million vehicles affected across several brands. At Toyota South Africa we have 730,000 vehicles affected," the agency quoted Mzolisi Witbooi, corporate public relations manager at the company, as saying.

Toyota South Africa officials were not immediately reachable for comment on Friday.

Witbooi said the the company had not received a report of any accidents caused by the defective air bags, Xinhua reported.

It said Toyota was recalling its Hilux, Rav4, Fortuners (built from July 2003 to December 2005), Yaris models, RunX and Corrolla (built from 2002 to 2007).

Depending on the car brand, the replacement of the car component would be free and take a day, Witbooi told the agency.